Emily Fox was scrolling Facebook on her phone Tuesday morning in Paris.
She was slowly waking up, preparing for a big day out with her family. She and her kids had traveled in from Colorado to attend some Olympic events and explore France.
Emily’s social scroll stopped when she saw a post about a U.S. gymnast with coloboma, an exceedingly rare eye condition that severely impacts vision and the physical appearance of the pupil.
In the case of her son, Porter, the pupil of his left eye is shaped like a keyhole, spilling into the ring of hazel green. He’s essentially blind in that eye, too.
The headline on Emily’s screen read: “Gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik is the Clark Kent of the 2024 Olympics.”
The night before, Nedoroscik captured hearts with a tough-as-nails pommel horse routine that earned the United States its first men’s gymnastics team medal since 2008. Nedoroscik took off his thick, black-rimmed glasses for the performance, revealing to reporters afterward that his coloboma leads him to rely on feel, not sight, when he's on the apparatus.
Emily pulled up the routine on her phone for her son to watch.
“I always like to share things with Porter that are inspirational and uplifting and just reassuring him, you know, he’s not different in this world.”
“He’s seven,” Emily explained. “Being different is not that great when you’re seven.”
Before she and her family left for the day, Emily followed Stephen on Instagram and sent him a quick message of support:
The family headed out for a day of wandering. They hadn’t seen the Eiffel Tower yet, so that was first on their list. They noticed the TODAY Show crew in action and, before they knew it, Al Roker was ushering Emily’s family onto the set. Porter and his sister, Brinkley, hung out right between Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb for the final segment of Tuesday’s show.
The family had plans to watch Olympic water polo at Paris Aquatic Center, so it was almost time to go when an NBC intern mentioned that the U.S. men’s gymnastics team was right around the corner, making the media rounds after their first team medal in 16 years. Emily casually remarked that her son has the same eye condition as one of the gymnasts and, hey, isn’t that cool? The intern disappeared.
Minutes later, she reappeared with Stephen Nedoroscik. He walked right up to Porter and got down to his level to compare eyes. For the first time in his life, Porter met another person with his condition.
“Porter said to me, ‘Mom, I really thought I was the only person with coloboma,’” Emily said.
“I always tell him that other people have it. I’ve showed him pictures. But, as a kid, until you physically meet someone else, you just think you’re the only one.”
Suddenly, the seven-year-old realized he wasn’t different. At least not next to his new friend, the Olympic hero.
They talked about Porter’s favorite sports — he’s into soccer and basketball these days — and they embraced for photos. Before Stephen was whisked away for his next appearance, he left Porter with one message.
“Stephen told him, ‘Remember, you can do anything,’” Emily recalled. “‘Don’t ever let [coloboma] hold you back.’”
That message didn’t take long to sink in. By day’s end, Porter was listing off all the sports he would one day compete in on the world's biggest stage.
"He was saying, 'Mom, I feel like I can go to the Olympics now,'" Emily said.
"'I want to be just like him.'"
